Daily Digest 11/12 - Russia Braces For Long Economic War With The West, ACA FAQs

Economy

Mayor Jeff Lansky said Monday camera tickets had generated $960,000 for the city of about 23,000 since a contractor began installing the devices in July. Maple Heights is under a state fiscal watch because of difficulties balancing its budget.
Voters in Cleveland approved a similar measure last week banning speed and red light cameras, which officials say will cost the city about $6 million a year.

Sixteen listed Chinese banks reported nonperforming loans totalling 604.65 billion yuan (€79.25 billion) as of the end of September this year, up 31.7 per cent from a year ago, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing data from the banks’ quarterly business reports.

Worsening sentiment is also a stark reminder of how far the economy has veered off course compared to the beginning of the year when the government claimed its fiscal stimulus spending would easily offset the impact of higher taxes.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC consulting firm, rates will rise 6 percent on average.
But insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield warn others could see much bigger increases, even for those with traditional insurance provided by an employer.
The insurance company said its customers will see those rates rise about 21 percent.

For 2015, the maximum out-of-pocket costs are increasing from $6,350 to $6,600 for an individual policy holder. Those with family plans will see a jump from $12,700 to $13,200 next year for services covered by your plan.

Lubomir Mitov, from the Institute for International Finance, said it would be “very dangerous” if reserves fell below $330bn. Foreigners have pulled back almost entirely and the financing gap has reached 3pc of GDP each year. A further fall in oil prices would push Russia into a current account deficit. “Russia is already in a perfect storm,” he said.

Second quarter data in August showed data showed Germany's economy had lost momentum, contracting for the first time in over a year. Quarter-on-quarter, GDP contracted 0.2 percent. If the economy contracts again in the third quarter, Germany will technically be in recession.

That weaker outlook, alongside risks of a return to recession in the neighbouring euro zone, will allow Bank Rate to stay at 0.5 percent until at least April, the poll said.
“With inflation probably heading down to 1 percent over the next couple of months and wage growth very weak the Bank faces no pressure at all to raise rates just now,” said Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg.

Russia has stepped up its gold buying significantly this year, data from the World Gold Council showed, adding nearly 115 tonnes of gold to its reserves in the year to date, against 77.5 tonnes in the whole of 2013 and 75 tonnes in 2012.

Gazprom, Russia's state-owned oil company, inked its second major gas deal with China this year. Separately, Russia's state run bank Sberbank secured about $2 billion in financing from Chinese lenders, which will help ease the pain of Western sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime. The deals give Russia additional leverage with Europe, which is highly dependent on Russia's natural gas and helps China secure a major source of energy on favorable terms.

Gold & Silver

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